- Even in the long and storied career of Pedro Almodovar- 2019’s Pain and Glory is a superior work.
- Almodovar works in melodrama- one of the all-time greats—like Fassbinder and Sirk—but the autofiction (his word in the film) here pushes this more towards Fellini (critics have mentioned that this is his 8 ½ and that is an apt description). Some of Almodovar’s earlier works have been broader almost Preston Sturges-like comedies (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) and others have leaned towards Hitchcock (The Skin I Live In).
The beauty in Pain and Glory stars early with breathtaking avant-garde opening titles.
Almodóvar is one of the few still taking opening credits seriously and rendering them artistically- another comparison with Hitchcock– Fassbinder was not a slouch here either
- In the next sequence, Antonio Banderas (playing Salvador Mallo) is underwater with his eyes closed. There is a flashback scene early with Salvador’s mother (Penelope Cruz) singing while washing clothes in the river. There are priests in the school flashback. Salvador certainly has Almodóvar’s hair- and Banderas nails Almodóvar’s coy smile.
- Memory and flashbacks – and then conversations with other works of art, artists and texts (including his own which is a sort of bizarre self pat on the back).
- The visual style is, as always with Almodóvar, about the mise-en-scene filled with vibrant colors, costume design. There are at least four to five sublime cinematic paintings that may end up among his twenty to twenty-five greatest.
- The film is not flawless- the entire geography/anatomy scene at school with the voiceover section should have been left on the cutting room floor.
Asier Etxeandia plays Alberto—at the 17-minute mark Salvador and Alberto are sitting in Almodóvar’s trademark chase lounge chairs as they chase the dragon together.
- The sublime brown tile décor detailing at the station is first shown at the 19-minute mark- this will come back for the masterful ending.
- The story chronicles Salvador’s struggles with his back pains, drug abuse- he is a film director who is rummaging through his memories as he faces these hazards (the pain of the “Pain and Glory”).
- Nora Navas as Mercedes at the 49-minute mark on the phone (going back to Almodóvar’s great shots from Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) in front of the colored canvas blinds.
At the 74-minute mark there is a painting in the background—the orange chair with Banderas’ Salvador on the left- pouring tequila- with Leonardo Sbaraglia on the right in a maroon chair. A fabulous reoccurring image in his oeuvre—the two people in conversation in chairs (wheelchairs in Talk to Her)—really well done. His films are highly verbal so to make a composition out of a dialogue sequence is impressive. Bergman, Kurosawa could do it– but few others.
The faux green backdrop at the 79-minute mark stunner- like the great auteurs who previously worked in melodrama- Fassbinder and Sirk– Almodovar pays as much attention to the background as he does the foreground. This is triumph for Antonio Banderas—the best performance of his career.
- At the 91-minute mark there is this gray design on the glass with the bold colors in the kitchen as a backdrop.
a quick sequence during a dialogue scene– magnificently obstructed and textured mise-en-scene
- Nostalgia and pain- long history, chance meetings and heroin use. The film tackles depression, acts as a sort of confessional in the scenes with mother. This is Banderas’ best work as an actor.
The whitewash (these great setpiece cave houses) composition at the village at the 96-minute mark with the red shirt as a child- one of the great paintings in Almodovar’s oeuvre.
- For Almodovar this marks the eight collaboration with Antonio Banderas and sixth with Penelope Cruz- the actor and actress most associated with the great Spanish auteur at this point- and not just because of their successes in Hollywood as well.
- Back to the jaw-dropper train station decor at the 119-minute mark – redemption as Salvador can make films again.
The final shot is breathtaking as well- it is metafiction (it collides the world of the main narrative and flashbacks) but also a strong composition with the brown tile work
- Highly Recommend / Must See border- leaning Must-See
Yes! What a beautiful film. I believe that it is underrated:
TSPDT has it ranked as the 279th best film of the 21st Century; however, if we rate it as an MS (which I believe it is) and account for 6 combined MSs and MPs on average each year, Pain and Glory should be no lower than (6 * 22) = 132 (which I believe might still be too low, so far of course).
The saving grace is that Pain and Glory has climbed from the 357th best film of the 21st century (according to the 2020 table) to the 279th; I hope this trend continues.
Within the oeuvre of Almodovar, it is a standout film and adds another feather in his cap.
Thank you for your analysis @Drake; I particularly appreciate your comment about the recurring image of “two people in conversation in chairs” (a good title for a Roy Andersson film, perhaps?) in Almodovar’s work. That is spot on, and his achievements in mise-en-scene are not to be overlooked (as you mention).
Side note: I suspect you are working your way towards a 2021 review and then perhaps a series of revised Best of Decades reviews and an updated Best 500 Films of All Time. If this is true, I await them with anticipation; also, I hope to contribute more in the future.
Many thanks!
@yaared – Thank you so much for the comment. Great work here. When I look at overrated/underrated on TSPDT I try to isolate the year. Even on the 21st century list, the list is kinder to older films. If you do that for 2019 Almodovar’s film is 7th– pretty solid given how strong a year 2019 is.
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